I always knew watching Degrassi made me feel smarter and now I have proof!
The Canadian classic has just been awarded the very distinguished Peabody Award! The award, which recognizes the “distinguished achievement by broadcasters, cable and Webcasters, producing organizations, and individuals,” was given to Degrassi for its groundbreaking episodes about Adam, Degrassi’s first transgendered student. In honouring the show, the committee said: “True to its history, the durable high-school serial’s two-parter about a transgender teen neither trivializes nor overdramatizes its subject.”
Other 2011 winners include Justified, Men of a Certain Age and The Good Wife.
The Peabody Awards, hosted by Larry King, will be held May 23.
I get asked all the time why I choose to write solely about Canadian entertainment. Besides my love of all things Canuck, it makes it really easy when it comes to not having to write about stupid things like The Real Housewives series. It’s trash TV at its worst and has been producing terrible examples of the human species for years. But like I said, they aren’t Canadian, so I’ve never had to write about it.
Until now.
It looks like The Real Housewives of Toronto is nearing production and may be invading our homes before we even have time to prepare for it by taking hourly antibacterial showers.
Louise Clark of Vancouver’s Lark Productions, has already said that they are looking into the possibility of bringin the Housewives series to Canada, but so far no deal has been nailed down. But that hasn’t stopped the rumour mill from churning. According to a City TV story, cameras are getting ready to roll and Toronto neighborhoods Bridle Path, Rosedale and Forest Hill are all being scouted for filming.
So who would be the housewives? Well no one is saying for sure but the same story mentions socialites Jessica Mulroney (Ben’s wife,) designer Kimberley Newport-Mimran and fashionista Stacey Kimel as potential housewives.
It should be no surprise that they are bringing the series to Canada, I guess the only shocking part is that they still haven’t called my mom, who admittedly can drink all of these ladies under the table.
(photo via Macleans)
I was a little worried when I heard that there would be three more Scream movies but if that’s what it takes to get Neve Campbell back into our lives, than Scream, Scream, Scream-away!
The former Party of Fiver look amazing on The Marilyn Denis show this morning when she popped by to chat about the new Scream series. The movie doesn’t open up until next week, but the flick will have it’s Toronto premiere tonight!
Welcome back Neve! Now what’s the chances we can get you working on a Catwalk re-do?
Click here to watch the video!
For me, one of the best parts of the Junos is admittedly the parties. They are all night, all the time and all sorts of fun.
One of the hottest parties I went to this week was called The Rockstar Hotel. It wasn’t in a hotel but it did feature a ton of great bands, loads of vodka and Jaggerbombs. Lots of Jaggerbombs. Besides rockstars it also featured superstar bloggers like Casie Stewart. (That pic is of us at the party!) The party was at the super exclusive (so I’m told,) Spoke Club and many of us partied late, late into the night.
The whole event was sponsored by HP, who just emailed me saying that they are giving a way a few brand new HP Laptops and the contest couldn’t be easier, that’s why I had to share it with you.
To win, send your correct answer to vip@rockstarhotel2011.com by Tuesday April 5th, 2011 with your full name, phone number and email address. Winning names will be drawn at random and winners will be contacted by the Rockstar Hotel team directly.
QUESTION: At Rockstar Hotel on Friday March 25th this Canadian rock band gave an intimate and memorable acoustic performance for invited guests of HP, Pre 2 and contest winners. Hint: They are in contention for getting a shot at the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine and are what the mag calls “shaggy, classic-rock-loving dudes from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.”
Need a hint? The answer is RIGHT HERE.
(photo via Casie Stewart.)
Pop Quiz Hot Shot(s):
Could Arcade Fire be any cooler?
Answer: Evidently, yes.
Not only did they kill at the grammys and then come north to the Junos and snatch up a ton of awards, the next day the band flew down to Haiti and did a surprise concert!
The concert took place Monday night at the Hotel Oloffson under the billing “Grand Return of the World Famous Band from Canada.” According to Rolling Stone, the band played a 45-minute set that included a mix of covers (Who’ll Stop the Rain?) and originals (Keep the Car Running.)
Seriously! Now I feel like such an ass for complaining about being tired on Monday. How do they do it?
Rolling Stone has a ton more photos and details about the concert.
Your move Charlie Sheen.
Have you ever wondered what it would take to make it to the cover of Rolling Stone magazine? Well if you are one band from Saskatoon, all it takes is a couple of thousands of votes!
The band is question is called The Sheepdogs have made it into the Top 8 in Rolling Stone magazine’s Do You Wanna Be A Rock Star competition. Whichever band wins, will get to be on the cover of music’s most pretentious prestigious magazine. Even cooler is that they are the only Canadian band left in the running!
At this point, the competition is strictly fan voted, but this is only round two of four, so there is really no reason why Canada can’t get behind this team and support The Sheepdogs. Maybe they could get the american attention The Tragically Hip or Hedley never could? Ohhhh burn.
If you wanna support the really great Canadian band (and why wouldn’t you?) Click here to give them a vote or twenty.
Remember the first time we met Anna Silk? For most of you it was when she played a naked lesbian on Being Erica. In case you’ve forgotten, here’s the link.
But since then, she starred in her own very successful series called Lost Girl and seemed to have put her getting naked on CBC days behind her. Literally.
Well that’s what I thought too, until I saw the promo for tonight’s all sorts-of-naked Republic of Doyle. Anna guest stars as a real estate agent who is looking to seal the deal with Mr. Doyle…if you know what I mean!
In case you can’t wait for tonight’s show (or happen to be a little bit of a perv,) here are some more shots…which I grabbed for research purposes. Jeez, the things I do for you guys.
You know if you think about, Allan Hawco writes, produces and stars in Republic of Doyle. Not he has a tough job!
When this link first showed up in my inbox, I didn’t really get it. 65 songs from Canadian artists for free? It sounded like a shady revolution of Columbia House and I was sure it was spam. I looked at it again a few hours later and as it turns out, yes, it is indeed 65 songs from artists like: Chromeo, Hollerado, The Sheepdogs, Hey Rosetta!, Said The Whale, Mother Mother, PS I Love You and more.
It officially became one of the coolest emails that I’ve ever gotten!
All of these artists were featured at the just-wrapped SWSW music festival, so if you are like me and you are dying of jealously of all the people who actually got to go, just download the sampler and act like you were there. A few photoshopped concert photos, some mud on your jeans, a new Apple product and no one will be the wiser!
Click here to download the link! Happy listening!
If you’ve been waiting to get Netflix because of the drama around usage charges, today might be the day you’ve been waiting for.
Netflix Canada just announced that using the video streaming site will now use 2/3 less data on average with minimal impact to video quality. For example, watching 30 hours of Netflix movies & TV shows will only use 9 GB of data, well below most Canadian data caps. Previously, 30 hours from Netflix typically used 31 GB!
So what does that mean for you? Well it means that you can watch a whole lot more Netflix, which I have to admit has been getting better and better by the month, especially its TV section. They now have the complete series of Arrested Development, Better Off Ted and Angel. Yes, I loved Angel. Actually, I only loved seasons four and five but I’ll happily retry seasons one, two and three.
Some shows are still missing from my Netflix wish list including: Fringe, Freaks and Geeks, and Veronica Mars. But who knows, now that Netflix just got easier to use, maybe my wish list will be right around the corner!
As you know, I’ve spent the last few days in Toronto having a great time exploring the city like never before. But as you can expect, there’s been some speed bumps. Calgarians don’t seem to care about Toronto and Toronto, well Toronto doesn’t seem to care much about anything else. At least that’s what we’d like to believe – I kinda think both of these two cities really just misunderstand each other and actually can probably learn from each other if they just started listening.
Thus the subject of my new column with Metro! That’s right ladies and gentlemen, it’s the battle of Calgary vs. Toronto! Who will come up on top and who has been wrong this whole time?
Click here to read my column, or pick it up at any green box around the city if Calgary!
